By the time the characters reach their 50s and the story arrives at its moving conclusion, readers will be attached and find them very hard to forget. There is real pleasure in following characters over such a long period, as they react to setbacks and successes, and, in some cases, change. This is a novel that values the everyday over the extraordinary, the push and pull of human relationships%E2%80%94and the book's effect is cumulative. He cuts himself and contemplates suicide, even as his career flourishes and his friends support him. Throughout the years, Jude struggles to keep his terrible childhood secret and to trust those who love him. Unlike his friends, who have largely ordinary lives, Jude has a horrific trauma in his past, and his inner demons are central to the story. At the beginning of Hanya Yanagihara’s new novel, A Little Life, four young men, all graduates of the same prestigious New England university, set about establishing adult lives for. The focus narrows as the story unspools%E2%80%94and really, this is Jude's story. Over the course of the book, which spans three decades, we witness their highs and lows as they face addiction, deception, and abuse, and their relationships falter and strengthen. Early on, their concerns are money and job related as they try to find footholds in their respective fields. The story begins with four college friends moving to New York City to begin their careers: architect Malcolm, artist JB, actor Willem, and lawyer Jude. Yanagihara follows her 2013 debut novel, The People in the Trees, with an epic American tragedy.
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